Bodhisattva, please help me in my spiritual practice!

Not only did he directly grant the third inscription, but he also saved 200,000 inscription fees. This Bodhisattva is truly generous. Ao Peng looked at Bodhisattva Longshu, "Do you have any other innate spiritual treasures or similar items to entrust to me?"

Nagarjuna Bodhisattva laughed loudly, "Yes, yes."

Just as Ao Peng was looking on expectantly, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna reached out and took out a five-colored rice stalk from Ao Peng's soul. This five-colored rice, which symbolizes yin, needs to be combined with yang five-colored rice to become the incense rice that ultimately enhances the power of ordinary people.

"If one day you attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, this rice will bloom in countless, endless, and boundless worlds, possessing thirty-two kinds of beauty, and can dispel greed, anger, ignorance, blindness, ugliness, stupidity, hoarseness, madness, and all kinds of eighty-one kinds of illnesses and sufferings."

After saying this, Nagarjuna Bodhisattva radiated boundless and limitless light, penetrating the world and illuminating cause and effect. He was supreme and great. Ao Peng looked over and saw that under a towering tree, the Bodhisattva held a seed in his hand, and all kinds of beautiful light were gathered within it.

A divine dragon, shaking its head, flew out of the Realm of Truth, reflecting the countless years of cultivation and inheritance of the Empire, and willingly fell into the palm of Nagarjuna Bodhisattva. Nagarjuna Bodhisattva saw a new path and escaped the predicament he had faced in the past, so he not only wanted to subdue the poisonous dragon within himself, but also to subdue all the poisonous dragons in the world.

The seed of Dao transformed into a stalk of brilliant rice, which, with a sprinkle from the Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, fell into the hands of all players in the empire, each receiving a grain. A lifetime of cultivating a thousand theories is but a grain of millet in the palm of one's hand; today, the poisonous dragon is subdued, and Nagarjuna is a legend for eternity.

The light was dazzling, turning into waves that propelled Ao Peng away from the real world and into another strange and wondrous world.

After Ao Peng regained some of his senses, he saw countless system notifications flooding in one after another.

You have grasped the essence of the Buddha's teachings on the Shennong painting.

[You have obtained the Dragon Tree's legacy "Buddha-Demon Seal," you have condensed the third inscription, and all your attributes have increased by 0.4.]

You have triggered the third difficulty: the difficulty of the Dharma.

[You are currently in the timeline of the beginning of Journey to the West, five hundred years ago.]

Location: Shu Commandery, Eastern Han Dynasty.

Ao Peng propped himself up, rubbed his head, and was hit by a pungent smell. He subconsciously looked at his palms, which were dry and dark yellow, obviously caused by long-term malnutrition.

This isn't my hand!

Ao Peng instantly realized what was happening, then looked at the clothes he was wearing—thin strips of cloth sewn together, barely enough to cover his body. Had he been resurrected again?

After a moment of confusion, more information flooded into Ao Peng's mind.

He then figured out the cause and effect.

His soul ascended from the intermediate state to the real world, originally intending to merge with his physical body. However, it was intercepted by Nagarjuna Bodhisattva, who then used the system rules to enter the instance, so only his soul entered the instance.

Nagarjuna Bodhisattva saw the cause and effect, and even "thoughtfully" helped him trigger the third tribulation, the tribulation of the Dharma.

The so-called Dharma tribulation is a calamity in which a practitioner loses all their magical powers. In Buddhism, it is called "retrogression," which is a calamity in itself caused by a practitioner's obsession with supernatural powers.

After Ao Peng understood his own status, the system prompts continued to appear.

Western Sichuan is mountainous, rich in legends of immortals and heroes, and also rife with demons and monsters.

At this time, immortals and gods have disappeared from the Western Shu, and ghost kings from all directions are causing chaos. There are a total of six great demons and eight ghost generals, named Liu Yuanda, Zhang Yuanbo, Zhong Ziji...

Ao Peng immediately spotted an old acquaintance.

Spring Plague Lord Zhang Yuanbo.

"What a small world!"

Ao Peng chuckled bitterly in a low voice. The tribulations of cultivators are truly mysterious. He never expected that he would meet the Spring Plague Lord again five hundred years before the Journey to the West after offending him so badly two months ago. No wonder that in cultivation, even the righteous and demonic paths would not offend each other to death, because you never know when you will fall into trouble.

At this time, the land of Shu was a melting pot of humans and ghosts, and the orders of the Han envoys could not be extended beyond the city walls.

You are from one of the surrounding villages. Amidst this ghostly calamity, you and other survivors flee, hoping to reach the capital of Chengdu to escape the disaster.

[As the saying goes, to establish yourself and make a living, you need to regain your lost magical powers and make a name for yourself in this place where humans and ghosts mingle, and protect the people of the county.] The system's final message ended, and Ao Peng's five senses became clearer. He stared blankly at the dim yellow sky in the distance, where birds seemed to be startled and quickly flew across the horizon.

While he was still in a daze, the fleeing people in front of him quickly grabbed him, "Pengzi, hurry up and leave! If it gets late and you can't find shelter, you'll just be waiting to die in these mountains!"

Ao Peng nodded hurriedly and followed. At this time, humans and ghosts mingled together. In Chengdu, ghosts roamed freely at night, and ordinary people could only seek refuge in county towns or temples to survive.

His original village suffered heavy casualties when its temple was attacked by demons, forcing the survivors to flee the "Demon Wasteland." Unfortunately, in this era, cities are scarce, and the mountain roads are rugged, making it unlikely that there will be temples to rest along the way.

As the blood-red sun dipped almost halfway below the horizon, the person leading the way excitedly exclaimed, "There's a temple ahead! Let's hurry and take shelter there!"

Ao Peng followed along for half an hour, and roughly figured out the various abilities he could currently use.

First, all his original supernatural powers were sealed, even Little Chaos and Little Mystic Maiden were sealed inside his body and couldn't get out. However, the system's accompanying pocket still existed; this was an external force that he could borrow.

There are quite a few items inside.

However, high-end treasures, such as the [Six Paths of Karma Wheel] and the [Dragon Slayer Blade], have basic physical limitations for use. Even if Ao Peng took them out, he would not be able to use them.

Those ordinary extraordinary items were not stuffed into Ao Peng's backpack when he was all-powerful.

There are a few items that are still usable now.

Firstly, when he ascended to the next level, he received ten skill manuals from his ancestors' tablets. These ten skill manuals were all around the level of three or two life-spans, not considered powerful, just ordinary skill-level, but at this moment, they could provide Ao Peng with considerable help.

The second is a palm-leaf manuscript, the Vedas.

This true scripture fell into the hands of Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, who originally intended to pass it on to Ao Peng. So when Ao Peng killed Princess Naga, he easily obtained this true scripture, which even Bodhisattva Nagarjuna coveted, using the Twin Azure Dragons.

Thirdly, there's the incense offering; Ao Peng still has 6000 points of incense offering on him.

Although he still had 15 merit points left, he planned to save them to exchange for various secret treasures, so naturally he didn't exchange them all for incense offerings. Now, far from the empire's sphere of influence, he only had 6000 incense offerings left, but in this era where humans and ghosts coexisted, it was still a considerable asset. The fourth was the grain of incense rice that Nagarjuna Bodhisattva gave him after its transformation.